


Growing Close in Quarantine

by miraculous_sunshine_child



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25377271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculous_sunshine_child/pseuds/miraculous_sunshine_child
Summary: COVID puts a damper on the spring semester of their last year of collège with a country-wide shutdown and moving to online classes.  Gabriel keeps an even tighter leash on Adrien out of worry for his health and slows his work as Hawkmoth in the face of a pandemic as he deals with his struggling business, and Adrien has to face the isolation and containment that comes with that.  Marinette finds herself dealing with new evils on top of that of their local super-villian.  The two are able to become even better friends during quarantine, and maybe even something more.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	1. Tension in the Air

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place during the next academic year after Season 3 (which ends at the beginning of summer according to the miraculous ladybug wiki). Marc has transferred into the miracu-class this year, which will hopefully lend itself to small Marc/Nathaniel moments. Adrien and Kagami are together at the beginning of the story but that'll change, and Marinette and Luka were once a thing but decided to separate and just be friends.

While the year began just as well as any other, with the typical problems of life that could be handled: Chloe’s attitude, Lila’s lies and daily akumas, this semester started with a damper. There was news of a deadly virus in China and, while many didn’t care so long as it didn’t affect them, many others were scared for their friends, for family abroad, and for the possibility of the virus spreading to other countries. As the weeks went on, many businesses started to take more precautions once numbers began their spike in Italy. Everyone began discussing arrangements for how to handle a growing and spreading epidemic when it was so close to them. Everything was uncertain and anxiety in Paris hadn’t been so high since the first akuma attacks last year.

  
Tensions surmounted to an all-time high on campus this particular Friday. The growth of fear, anxiety and virus rates was exponential, and the students of Francois Dupont seemed to buzz with nervous energy. The Prime Minister could give the orders for a nation-wide shut down at any moment, and the students and teachers all waited in anticipation of this announcement. Madame Bustier was trying to ease the stress and anxiety of the students, as always, but even she had radiated a weakly hidden sense of dread and panic throughout the week.

“Class, I need an extra few minutes before class starts to handle some business, if that is alright with you all.” Everyone nodded in agreement, though very few verbally agreed, their nerves strung too tight for words. Miss Bustier looked to our favorite pig-tailed heroine. “Might I ask the class president to come help me for a moment?” Marinette straightened as her fellow classmates looked to her.

“Of course, Madame.” She stood from her seat and made her way to the front of the classroom and out the door when Miss Bustier opened it for the both of them. They walked side-by side as Miss Bustier led Marinette to the copy room though they did not speak a word until the door closed behind them.

“Marinette, my dear, I fully expect today to be our last day together as a class for who knows how long.” Miss Bustier stated as she pulled some papers from her folder and placed them on the copy machine. “I understand that this situation is a lot to handle, and especially for you in some ways . . . but you have shown to be resilient in difficult situations of all kinds and, as class president, I would like to ask for your patience and all of the help that I can get in the coming weeks. We are all going to have much to get used to as we transfer to online classes and quarantine, and I cannot arrange all of these changes and watch the emotional well-being of my kids as closely as I usually would. It’s too much for one person to do, and I care too much for you all to fail you now when you need it most. I would like if you could help me gauge the emotional well-being of the class and bolster as much support for each other as we can. I feel that I can trust you with that.” Marinette nodded

“I won’t let you down, Miss Bustier. I’ll help whoever I can. Hopefully, I can come up with some ideas to keep us social while going online too.”

“That’s a great idea! Thank you. Let me know if there are any ideas that I can help with.” Miss Bustier grabbed a stack of packets from the copier and handed it to Marinette as she set more papers to be copied. Then, they walked back again in silence. Marinette set the stack of papers on the corner of Miss Bustier’s desk and returned to her seat beside Alya. Though Alya gave her a questioning look, Marinette’s only response was to smile and squeeze her hand in reassurance. She couldn’t bring herself to lie and say that everything was okay when the world was going to hell around them. Before Miss Bustier could start class, Lila rose from her seat behind Marinette.

“Miss Bustier, I would like to ask to sit at one of the back tables for today.” She glanced up, eyes lingering on Marinette and Kim who sat in seat across the aisle from her though most would never notice. “I’m worried about catching the virus”

“Yes, if that makes you more comfortable. Now, back to business.” Miss Bustier lead them through an exercise where they would use one word to describe their emotions, the most common word being anxious, then spent a moment focusing on a happy moment to help calm them down. It seemed to help some of the class settle down and focus enough for the literature lesson that followed, like Max and Mylene, but focus was not a common feeling in the moment. Nino continued to fidget with any item he could get his hands on; Juleka kept pulling her hair further into her face; Nathaniel was drawing anything he could think of all over his paper; Chloe spun her bracelets around her wrist; Adrien was poised to write notes but nothing made it onto the page. Halfway through the lecture, the loudspeaker blasted through the school with the principal’s voice.

“Teachers, the announcement has been made to switch to online schooling. Please brief your students on your plans and expectations for the coming weeks. Thank you.” The classroom was absolutely silent for a moment. Everyone was so still that one could imagine time had stopped completely. Miss Bustier sat at her desk and rubbed her forehead and sighed.

“Marinette, could you please pass out the packets we printed earlier?” Marinette took a deep breath and stood. She walked around the room passing the packets to each individual. Each person glanced at the packets, which seemed to detail Miss Bustier’s plans for switching to an online classroom. Surprisingly, Mylene was the first to break the silence.

“Oh my God, this is really happening,” she breathed as she read the first few sentences of the packet. With her words, the students all seemed to come back to life.

“Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! I’ll call daddy, and he’ll lift the shut down! You’ll see,” burst out Chloe with her phone already to her ear. Marcov flew out of Max’s bag as he and Max announced the probabilities that the Mayor would actually be able to call off the shutdown or that they open back up within the semester or that any one of them gets the virus or that any one of them already has the virus.

“There are going to be so many people at my house,” declared Alya, her eyes wide as she twined her fingers into her hair and pulled her knees up toward her chest. Rose and Juleka hugged each other close in their corner seats while Lila started spouting off about how she’s going to have to hardcore quarantine herself because she’d probably die from the virus with all of her diseases and disabilities. Essentially, the class erupted into chaos. Miss Bustier and Marinette locked eyes and nodded. Miss Bustier went straight to the back to calm down Lila while Marinette took on Chloe.

“Nino, can you stay with Alya please?” Marinette asked as she stood from her seat and walked toward Chloe, who was staring at her phone and stomping her foot as she was unable to get her father on the phone. “Chloe, this was a federal decision. There’s nothing even your father can do to stop this. Please, just sit and talk with us. We’ll get through this.”

“Shut up, Dupain-Cheng. You’re no one. Of course, you think this can’t be changed. For someone as important as me, a fix is a phone call away. Just sit back and watch me be my heroic self.” Neither girl sees that Adrien has left his seat until he speaks up beside them.

“Chlo,” interjected Adrien in a low voice, “We’ll be safer in our houses. This needs to be done.” Chloe turned to him, her lips down turned but her eyes slightly softer than before. Her eyes scanned his for a moment before she responded.

“So what? We just don’t get to finish collège together? We won’t even get two normal years of school together if they get what they want. Shouldn’t I at least try to make that possible for us?” Adrien gave her a light smile, but it did not meet his eyes.

“I appreciate that Chlo,” Adrien looked away and his smile faded, “but Father wouldn’t let me finish school with you even if you did somehow keep the school open.” Both girls’ eyes widened a bit as registered his words. Then, Chloe moved forward and hugged him.

“Oh, Adrikins.”

Marinette was taken aback by the exchange. She had never believed Chloe to actually be sad when she acted as if she were to get attention in the years that she had known her, nor had she ever seen Chloe comfort someone. In years prior to this, she would have denied that Chloe was even capable of caring so deeply for something, but she couldn’t deny her sincerity as she watched a tear roll over her waterproof makeup. It was touching that Chloe was trying to help, even if it was still for somewhat selfish reasons. Marinette wished she could step in and comfort them as well, especially now knowing that Adrien would have been taken out of school even if the government had not announced the school’s closure, but decided not to interrupt the tender moment as the two hugged each other tightly. Adrien turned up one side of his mouth in what he hoped was a smile to Marinette as she went to check on Max, who had since started writing all of the probabilities he and Marcov had been calculating since the announcement.

The classes were let out a few at a time at the end of the day to avoid crowding the students together. While waiting for their turn to be released, the class relished in talking in person for the last time for who knows how long. Marc and Nathaniel worked on plans for continuing their comic creations through video chats and online forums while Alix and Kim raced each other around the room over and over again. Mylène sang Smelly Wolf quietly for herself and Ivan as they leaned on one another, and Juleka sat back lightly smiling at her girlfriend as Rose happily ranted about some topic. Lila was lamenting about quarantine to Max and Sabrina while Chloe was on the phone with her father, though she was no longer demanding that he lift the shutdown. The four in the front corner were paying close attention to Alya as she described her plans for keeping in touch while they were all stuck at home.

“Of course, there are video chats that all four of us can do together and I’m making a group chat for us too. I heard there’s some sort of program where people can watch Netflix together online.”

“Oh, that could be fun,” Marinette chimed in encouragingly, and Adrien nodded along with her.

“Yeah! I could make a playlist for us to listen to and then we would all be listening to the same music while studying and stuff.”

“That would be great, babe!” Alya squeezed Nino’s hand in reassurance and smiled wide. She looked to the others. “We can make this work. It’ll almost be like we’re not even apart, and we’ll see each other soon enough.”

“Of course, we will as soon as quarantine is over,” Nino responded. He and Marinette smiled and nodded, but Adrien seemed to droop, his eyes dropping to the floor. “Won’t we?” Nino looked questioningly to Adrien. The blonde seemed to retreat into himself.

“No,” Adrien all but whispered, slightly shaking his head.

“What do you mean ‘no’, bro? Are you okay?”

“It’s your father, isn’t it?” Asked Marinette. “You mentioned he was going to take you out of school again, but how long is he keeping you home?” Adrien lifted his head, and Marinette realized just how bad this was for him. His eyes were rimmed red, as if he were barely holding back tears, and there were bags under his eyes that she could barely see through the makeup he used to hide them. She wondered if he had even slept that night. Meanwhile, Adrien wondered how she could be so smart, but was grateful that she was. He didn’t think he could have gotten through explaining without falling apart.

“He said at least until mid-summer,” he croaked. Marinette crinkled her eyebrows in worry, and Alya let out a small gasp.

“But . . . That’s like . . . almost six months!” Nino looked to Adrien in disbelief. Adrien nodded silently. Nino sagged in his seat and stared at him for a moment. Then, he scooted up and hugged him.

“I’m going to miss you, dude. I promise we’ll keep hanging out virtually even when the rest of us are out of quarantine. You’re not going to lose us that easy.” Adrien looked to Alya and Marinette over Nino’s shoulder, who wore twin expressions of determination and nodded in agreement.

“I’m so lucky to have you all.” Adrien managed to smile, and his eyes brightened. The class phone rang, and Miss Bustier quickly answered.

“Okay class. You are free to go,” Miss Bustier announced as she hung up the phone. “Please make your way to the front gates and stay safe. I expect to see everyone’s shining faces on camera Monday morning.” The class filed out slowly as everyone wished each other well and promised to keep in touch. Alya hugged Marinette goodbye while Nino patted Adrien’s back and made sure he was okay.

“Well, time to pick up the twins and Chris,” Alya announced. “They’re going to be obnoxiously happy to not have to go to school. They can’t sit still for a minute.”

“Chris is going to throw a fit when he figures out that he still has to get up for class online.”

“Aw, the couple is going to pick up the kids. How domestic,” Marinette quipped with a smirk. Alya rolled her eyes dramatically before the two waved their goodbyes and left. Marinette checked with Miss Bustier that she had all of the right school emails for the class, a resource she had rarely used since she was so close with everyone, for if she wanted to create a big video chat room for everyone, then turned to grab her bag and found that Adrien was still in his seat though most of the class had already left. Though Marinette had felt much more comfortable talking with him since this past summer with him and Kagami getting together and her and Luka dating for a bit, she still felt little butterflies whenever she saw him unexpectedly or when it was just the two of them. This time the butterflies immediately subsided as she grew more concerned for him. He seemed to have zoned out, staring at the floor and unaware of his surroundings.

“Adrien,” Marinette called to him lightly as she walked back to their desks. He didn’t respond. She called to him again with no reaction. Finally, she shook his shoulder a bit as she called his name again. His eyes refocused, and he looked around the room as if trying to gain his bearings with his eyes falling on Marinette last.

“Marinette?” He seemed dazed, but his eyes finally focused.

“Seems like you zoned out for a minute there. I thought maybe you were going to pass out. Then, I could catch you for once.” She straightened up and grabbed her bag. She nodded her head to motion for the door. “Come on. I’ll walk you out.” Adrien smiled gratefully as he followed her lead, and they walked out the door. Marinette nudged Adrien with her elbow.“Have you at least gotten to see Kagami before you’re locked up? If not, I’ll find a way to sneak you over to see her.”

“No, it’s been a few weeks, but there’s no need to sneak anybody anywhere.” He held up his hands as she lifted one eyebrow questioningly. “We talked just the other day. We’ve got phones.” She pulled her lip to one side.

“Fine, but you have to leave time for me and her to talk to. You can’t be stealing all her time. I’ll fight you for her.” Adrien laughed at that, his first real laugh in a few days.

“I’m not sure I’d win that fight.” They had nearly reached the front gates, and Adrien’s smile slowly dropped. He touched Marinette’s arm lightly. They pulled to a stop to the side of the hallway. Marinette turned to ask if he was okay but was crushed by a hug before she could. She stood till in shock at first but quickly hugged back.

“Thank you, Marinette,” Adrien whispered, holding her tightly to his chest. “I’d be lost without you.” Marinette pulled back and held him at arm’s length.

“And I without you,” she replied with a light squeeze to his shoulder and smiled. “You know I’ve always got your back, Adrien.”

“And I’ve got yours. Don’t worry too much about me. Afterall . . .” He grabbed something from his pocket. “I still have my lucky charm. I’m practically invincible.” Marinette pulled her backpack toward the front of her body and unzipped the front pocket.

“Me too.” She pulled her matching lucky charm from the open pocket. “This virus has nothing on us.” They both smiled and tucked their charms away again before walking out the front gates. They waved goodbye and went their separate ways, both feeling lighter from their exchange.


	2. Locked Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter depicts Adrien's first day of quarantine in the mansion, showing how the virus is changing his life and routines, including as Chat Noir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad boi Adrien

“You’ve reached the voicemail box of Kagami Tsurugi. Please leave a message and I will return your call at my earliest convenience.” A loud beeping noise came from the phone held to Adrien’s ear.

“Hey, Kagami. I was just calling to see how you are. My father has me booked pretty much all day. I thought maybe there wouldn’t be as much for him to fill my day with without photoshoots, but he’s scheduled several interviews for me for today and probably more tomorrow. He even had me practice basic fencing techniques this morning, but it was so boring without a partner. You and your mother practice together, so I’m sure you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of me when we get back to normal . . . I wonder if your mother has you as booked as I am? That usually is the case. Anyway, I hope you’re having a good day. I’ll talk to you later.” Adrien hung up the phone and sighed as he laid back onto his bed with his arms spread out beside him. Plagg flew up into his field of vision.

“You okay, kid?”

“Yeah. I was just hoping to talk with someone I want to for a few minutes.” Plagg nodded.

“Well, I’m here if you need, but don’t expect too many feelings from me.” Adrien pushed himself up from his bed and smirked at the moody little kwami.

“Of course not, I know better than that.” His smile dropped. “You know I don’t like being locked up in here, or father’s busy schedules, but there’s no getting out of it.”

“Really? _No_ _way_ of getting out of it?” Plagg smiled cheekily as he posed in the air to bring more attention to himself. Adrien rolled his eyes.

“I’ll go for the run when I need to, but I can’t just ditch interviews or monitored daily exercises to run over rooftops all the time. I _am_ worried about the possibility of akumas, but Hawkmoth seems to have gone quiet in the past few days.”

“Yeah, that _is_ weird. You think he’s paranoid about the virus too?”

“It’s possible. We can only hope, I guess.” Adrien’s phone chimed an alarm as a five-minute warning before his online Chinese tutoring. Adrien went to his desk chair and spun to face his computer screen. “For now, I’ll focus on one problem at a time.”

He was almost through his final interview of the night, a live interview with a well-known talk show host. At this point, he was going through the motions, delivering his practiced answers to questions about how COVID will affect the fashion industry and what we can hope to see from his father’s company in the near future. 

“So, one last question before you go: How are you doing with all of this, Adrien?” There was silence for a moment as Adrien thought of an answer. When improvising, Nathalie and his father always recommend being truthful but proper for the relationship between him and the interviewer, whom in this instance he had only met a few times before.

“You know, I think I’m doing about as well as any of us can be in the situation. I am a little sad that I don’t get to see my friends from school in person and attend more social events, but I understand that staying inside is imperative to slowing the spread of the virus and keeping our citizens safe and I hope that others can also find safe ways to socialize with one another through the internet as we get through this together.”

“Well said. Thank you for joining us. Adrien Agreste, everybody!” There was an automated sound of applause before the show went to commercial and then the video conference ended. Nathalie called him almost immediately.

“Well done, Adrien. That’s all the interviews for tonight. I’ll email you tomorrow’s schedule by eight. You are to practice your piano until dinner is ready.”

“Thank you, Nathalie.” The curt secretary nodded and ended the call. All of his interactions with Nathalie since he had gotten home after school the day before had been through video call, and he suspected it would continue to be this way. Apparently, she is immuno-compromised, but Adrien had never known this before even after years of her working for his family. Then again, she had seemed a little sick in the past year now that he thought about it. The reminder of dinner made his guts twist at the thought of another meal alone. Though he was accustomed to it, the empty dining table only highlighted his loneliness and, with how busy his father was running business operations through the shutdown, he knew he’d be eating at that empty table by himself for a long while.

He sighed and checked to see if he had any missed messages, then tossed his phone to side when seeing there were none. He sat at his piano, wishing he had sheet music for any more modern music, something that better expressed his emotions. He decided he could look for something like that another time and instead unfolded music for Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (No. 20) by Chopin: the saddest song in the stack.

**L.B.** **~~** _Don’t meet at the usual spot tonight. Find a place where no one will hear you, then call me._

Chat Noir read the message on his staff communicator. His heart began to race, and his stomach knotted up. _Something’s wrong._ He moved as fast as he could, bounding over rooftops and vaulting from roof to roof. He stopped on a tall building with no windows to other buildings in sight and hid behind the shack that held the entrance to the building and immediately flipped the staff open and put it to his ear (his human ear, not his cat ear).

“Ladybug, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Who do I have to fight?” Chat spat these questions so rapidly one might have thought he was using his last bits of air to say them. There was sputtering in response on the other end of the line.

“What? No, no. Chat, I’m okay. There’s no immediate danger.” Chat relaxed and stopped pacing. _Oh, thank God,_ he thought. “I’m sorry I scared you. I wasn’t thinking.” He put his hand to his chest and let out a shaky laugh.

“It’s okay, LB. I’m just relieved you’re okay. . . So, why can’t we meet for patrol then?” There was a pause and what sounded like a deep breath or a sigh.

“Because we need to discuss how we address the virus situation,” Ladybug responded flatly. “I’ve been talking with Tikki, and we feel that we need to be much more careful about certain things, but I didn’t want to make any decisions without your input.”

“I’m not sure what all we need to change, LB. I mean we’re basically invulnerable in the suits. I guess, we could wear masks to encourage the public to continue to do so.”

“We’re invulnerable to physical strikes, but there’s no evidence that we’re invulnerable to illness while transformed, and . . .” Ladybug sounded hesitant.

“And?”

“Kwamis can get sick.” Chat sucked in a sharp breath, and his face turned white as ash.

“They . . . what?”

“Tikki got sick a while back with what seemed like the equivalent of the human flu symptom-wise, and she wasn’t getting any better, so I had to take her to Master Fu. He was able to heal her, but . . . he didn’t teach me how to do that. I have no idea what to do if one of our kwamis gets sick. Wayzz _might_ be able to guide me through something, but I don’t want to take that chance, especially when I have so many kwamis to look after.” Chat’s face hardened, determined.

“I understand. We can’t risk them more than we have to. We’ll wear masks anytime we have to go out, as civilians or as superheroes. We can shower in the suits anytime after we transform. Maybe we should give the kwamis baths. Plagg will _hate_ that.” He could practically feel the hairs on his neck prickle with Plagg’s disdain for the subject.

“I’ll leave the bath thing up to you and your kwami, but the shower thing isn’t a bad idea. We need to keep reduced contact with everyone, even each other. It’ll be difficult during akuma attacks, but we should be able to manage at least minimal contact. I think we should do individual patrols from now on.” Chat’s heart sank.

“I know you’re right, but I hate it.” He tapped his foot and rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit and something he did when deep in thought. “Maybe . . . Maybe we could do contactless patrols. We’ll never be on the same roof. We can take our own halves of the city, meet on adjacent rooftops at the end and give our reports over a communicator call, so we don’t yell and wake up all of Paris.”

“Then we’ll both be transformed and ready if there’s a problem. Not bad, kitty. I’ll take that compromise.” He could almost hear her smirk and, God, did he miss seeing it.

“Purrfect! I’ll take the east side. Meet you on the opposing buildings of _Le Louvre_?”

“I’ll race you there.” The communicator beeped, the call having ended, and Chat leapt into action. He was not going to lose this race. Maybe he didn’t get to be physically next to his best friend but seeing her from afar was better than nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a YouTube clip of the song Adrien plays on the piano in this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqpPRj6UZqc
> 
> It's really pretty, and I think it really captures his negativity toward the situation.


	3. Social Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a group call with the whole class!

The first week of online classes got off to a slow start with less education than talking about the situation, but it got better as the week progressed. Miss Mendeleiv was still trying to figure out how to find lab assignments that could be done at home or that could easily be seen through a web cam, so it was mostly lectures and working on assignments in science class as was the same in math. For literature, they read their story out loud together, and they discussed the pros and cons of a monarchy and a republic in history class. It had all gone fairly well, all things considered, but the students had certainly lacked social interaction. Marinette set up a big group video chat for the class for that Friday afternoon as a part of trying to help the class keep in touch socially and keep up morale.

“Hello, everyone! Thanks for logging on! I’ve been missing talking with you all. It so good to see you.” Marinette smiled at the screen full of squares of video with her classmates faces. They all replied back with greetings and affirmations that they missed everyone too, except Chloe who just waved and rolled her eyes. “So, for today, I was thinking we could all go around and talk about one thing that has happened since we saw each other last week.” 

“Oh! Me first,” Rose exclaimed, practically shaking in her seat. She bolted off camera for a moment and came back with a giant shiny pink stuffed animal in her arms. “Mrs. Sparkles came in yesterday. I ordered her a month ago, and she’s finally here!” 

“It’s all she’s talked about for days,” Juleka added, giggling to herself on screen, with her hand over her mouth. It was hard to tell who she was looking at through the screen, but the affection in her eyes could only be for Rose. Marinette and several of the others laughed with more of their classmates just smiling.

“That thing’s massive,” Nino commented in awe.

“She’s me-sized!” Rose smiled so wide it was contagious. It made for a great start to the conversation, and Rose continued to cuddle with Mrs. Sparkles as the others began to share about themselves.

Juleka recently watched a new horror movie she hadn’t seen, which she deemed awesome. Myléne found a podcast on modern politics that has some interesting thoughts on the politics to come during the pandemic. Alya started writing a new Ladybug and Chat Noir fan fiction, of course a romance between the two superheroes. (Marinette wasn’t very happy that her best friend was such a hard core Ladynoir shipper, but there’s nothing she could do about it without revealing her identity.) Nino was making new re-mixes of popular songs. Marinette had decided to make and sell masks as a part of her commissions, which much of the class seemed interested in. Marc and Nathaniel finished a chapter of their comic, and Chloe got new make-up to play around with.

“Adrien, how about you, bro? How are things going at the A.M.?”

“The A.M.?” Myléne voiced the question that was on several of their minds.

“The Agreste Mansion,” Nino replied. “Come on, guys. Get up to speed.” Alya and several others laughed at Nino’s playful exasperation. Adrien rolled his eyes.

“The A.M. is . . . quiet.” Adrien seemed hesitant to answer, searching for a word to describe his situation at home. “I ordered some new piano music though, so that’s cool, I guess. Now I’ll have some more modern music, not like super modern but, you know, not stuff from the seventeenth century.”

“You know I love me some music talk, man, but really? Piano music is the best thing you can give me? Come on, dude!” Nino’s curious look could have rivalled that of the lady blogger herself, especially since his girlfriend seemed to have the same look. Those two hadn’t had a good story in while, and they were really searching for something good.

“Yeah! What about you and Kagami? Give us the scoop.” Adrien shrugged awkwardly. “Oh, come on, sunshine! You are two up-and-coming famous hotties dating, and you expect me to believe there’s no news?” Adrien nearly choked.

“Famous hotties?” he sputtered. Marinette had to hold herself back from falling over laughing.

“Why does that surprise you? You’re a model. That’s literally your job, and Kagami is gorgeous,” Marinette added with a smirk. Nino and Alya nodded along. Adrien still looked shocked and unbelieving. “Alright. Let’s do a head count. Raise your hand if you think Adrien and Kagami qualify as ‘famous hotties’.” Alya, Nino, Marinette and Chloe all raised their hand immediately with Sabrina, Lila, Juleka and Kim following suit.

“Dude, Nino?” The boy shrugged to his best friend, unashamed. Adrien was taken aback. “Kim?!”

“I can acknowledge when another guy looks good. Don’t make this weird.”

“Marinette?” He seemed the most surprised by her hand for whatever reason. Marinette blushed lightly in response and looked off away from the camera.

“Oh, you know, objectively speaking . . .” The rest of the class finally lost it at that, doubling over laughing. Even Chloe was holding her stomach giggling, as Adrien blushed bright red. The laughter died down after a few minutes, and Nino and Alya sat at their desks expectantly.

“Fine, fine. She and I talked twice this week, just updating each other on our days and how we’re feeling and saying good night. I left her messages on a few of the nights that we couldn’t talk. She left me one message during the day while we were in class yesterday. That’s it. I mostly just talked with Nino and played some video games this week.” Surprisingly enough, the duo seemed satisfied with this answer. The two seemed to be having a silent conversation.

“Hmmm . . . intesting.” Nino leaned back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head and a small smile.

“Very interesting.” Alya stared at Adrien for a long minute, tapping her fingers on her desk.

“Why do you two look like you just got some big scoop,” Marinette asked. She and about half of the class were both confused by their friends’ response while the other half seemed completely understanding, like they were in on the silent conversation.

“’Cause we basically did.” Alya was very confident in saying so with a smirk that said she knew more than anyone else.

“But we’ll talk about that when you’re ready,” Nino told Adrien. The blond just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He had learned long ago not to question his two friends when he would never get any answers. Myléne cleared her throat.

“So, Lila, what about you? How is everything?” The brunette looked off to the side in thought for a moment before sighing.

“Not great. Mamma had a meeting with a Chinese dignitary a few weeks back and now she has cough and soar throat. We’re worried she may have the virus. She’s going to get tested tomorrow.” The class gasped and gave their sympathies. Lila wiped her hand across her cheek as if wiping away a tear. “Thank you all. I just hope my mom doesn’t really have it. This Chinese virus . . . It’s just awful.” Marinette frowned slightly at this but said nothing. She didn’t know if Lila was telling the truth or some twisted lie. More than that, she didn’t know what to make of the virus being referred to in that way. She knew her mother didn’t like it but not why.

The rest of the conversation went on with more tension, as if knowing someone who may have the virus made the situation more real. In a way, it did. Suddenly, they were worried that their friend might be exposed or might have it and not know, that the virus was close to them and, if they weren’t at home, they’d get it. It was scary. Once the call was done, Marinette put her head in her hands, her anxieties taking a foothold in her brain.

“Marinette!” Tikki nudged one of her hands away so she could see her. “It’s going to be okay! We can’t let fear rule us.” Marinette moved to pulling on her pigtails in stress.

“I know, Tikki. It just feels like this huge dark cloud over all of Paris, all of the world really, and it’s hard not to give into that sometimes.” Marinette looked out the window above her desk at the Paris skyline with a frown. “It hasn’t felt like this since Hawkmoth first appeared.”

“I know it’s hard, Marinette, but at least we’ve got a little luck on our side.” Tikki twisted in the air in front of her. Marinette giggled, holding out her hands for the kwami and bringing her up to her cheek for a hug. Tikki pulled away. “Besides, Hawkmoth seems to have backed off the last couple weeks because of this, so at least that’s a little less stress.”

“Yeah. I just hope he’s not using the time to build up a big plan of attack to strike while we’re weak.” Marinette’s phone went off, and she picked it up to look at her messages.

Group Chat: **Sunshine Support Squad**

Created by: Alya

 **Alya** ~~ Make sure y’all are free tomorrow night. It’s officially movie night!

 **Nino** ~~ Sounds good. I’m down!

 **Adrien** ~~ Totally! What movie do we want to watch?

 **Alya** ~~ Don’t you worry, Sunshine. I’ve already found the perfect one. Don’t even sweat it.

 **Marinette** ~~ Oh really? Which one?

 **Alya** ~~ A friend highly recommended it, said it was ‘totally awesome’.

 **Adrien** ~~ That doesn’t answer the question.

 **Nino** ~~ She told me all about it earlier. You’re gonna love it!

 **Marinette** ~~ What is it then?

 **Alya** ~~ It’ll be great!

 **Marinette** ~~ They scare me when they get like this.

 **Adrien** ~~ Me too. It’s like I can hear their maniacal laughter from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not super happy with this chapter, but the cute Julrose was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fic. I hope y'all like it. I'd appreciate comments and constructive criticism. Thanks for reading!


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